The Fight of a Lifetime
by StudentofDust
Summary: This one takes you all the way back to the Chunin exam preliminaries. Sorry, but that's where the summary ends. Read it to find out what happens! Oneshot, slightly AU. NaruHina, SasuSaku. Some early storyline spoilers. Rated T for language.


He flashed in and out of the air; attempting kick after kick, punch after punch; no matter what, though, he just couldn't seem to land a hit on the contestant from the Sand Village.

"No matter what," called out Gaara, as Rock Lee settled onto the ground, "you can't beat me. You of all people should know that."

His words would turn out to be true; no matter what Rock Lee did, not even accessing forbidden chakra techniques, could stop Gaara from blocking his moves. Then, with a series of violent and quick attacks, Gaara won, leaving Rock Lee's body a broken mess. A man with a stretcher came out and whisked Rock Lee away.

"The winner of this match," said the announcer, "is Gaara. The next match will begin in fifteen minutes."

"Damn it!" yelled Naruto. "I don't want to wait that long! It wasn't me that just fought-"

"Calm yourself," interrupted Kakashi. "Your time will come soon enough."

"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei," replied Sakura, looking over at Naruto with a look of utter annoyance. Naruto noticed someone approaching him from the side.

"Good luck on your match, Naruto."

He turned, smiling when he saw who it was. "Thanks, Hinata," he said. "What'd you think of Neji's fight?"

"He was excellent, as always," replied Hinata. "But what I'm looking forward to most is watching your fight, Naruto."

Naruto was a bit surprised at this. "Why mine?"

"Well," she started, a blush beginning to form on her face, "I've been watching you for a long time… watching you train, grow up… It'll be nice to see you fight for a change against someone you can actually stand up to." She winked at Sasuke as she said that.

"Oh come on, Hinata," Sasuke said, a look of annoyance on his face, "that last match was a fluke. I wasn't even feeling good that day."

"Okay, whatever," Hinata replied, causing Naruto to laugh. "Good luck on your fight." Then she did something that shocked everyone watching- she leaned in and kissed Naruto on the cheek. Hinata walked away, blushing harder than ever.

"What… the hell… was that all about?" asked Sakura. "Did she actually just kiss him?"

"She's crazier than I thought," replied Sasuke.

Naruto's anger flared up. "Damn it, Sasuke!" he yelled. "She comes over here trying to encourage me on my match and all you bastards can do is make fun of her?!?!"

Sakura backed up a step, her eyes widening. "Calm down, Naruto, we were just joking around." She turned to Sasuke. "Okay, so by now it's pretty obvious Hinata's got a BIG crush on Naruto, but could he actually like her back?"

"Kinda looks like it, doesn't it?" they heard from the other side. They turned around to see who their new visitor was.

"I mean, if you really can't tell," said Gaara with a sneer, "you're more of a bunch of idiots than I thought."

"What the hell did you just call us?" asked Sasuke angrily.

"Oh, so you're idiots _and_ deaf? That's a good combination…" Gaara walked away, laughing to himself.

"Don't listen to him," muttered Sakura, pulling Sasuke backwards, who was quite ready to run over to Gaara and give him a piece of his mind- not to mention a piece of his fist.

"The next match will begin in five minutes," called out the announcer.

"Alright, better get to last-minute training," said Naruto, beginning to stretch out his muscles.

Sakura looked over at Naruto, a look of bemusement on her face. "What makes you think you're next, Naruto?"

"I just know it," replied Naruto, not even looking up at her.

"Fine, go ahead, do your thing," said Sasuke.

"Actually, Sasuke," said Kakashi, "I think there's a good chance that Naruto might actually be up next."

"Why do you say that?" asked Sakura.

"There aren't that many who haven't gone yet, so Naruto's got as much of a chance as anyone to go up next." His one visible eye narrowed. "My concern is who exactly he'll be facing."

"Whoever it is, he'll probably lose," replied Sasuke, a smirk on his face. Naruto heard him, but didn't bother to get up from his stretches; rather, he settled for flashing an obscene gesture in Sasuke's direction. At this, Sasuke merely laughed.

"Now," came a voice from below, "the next match will commence. As usual, the names of the two participating will come up on the screen."

Everyone grew quiet as they awaited the names to come up. The names of the remaining Chunin exam students began flashing up on the screen. The first came up.

**Naruto Uzumaki**

"Thank God!" Naruto yelled as he jumped from the spectators' area to the ground below. "I was beginning to think I'd die of old age before my name was called!"

"Naruto Uzumaki," said the announcer, "this will be your opponent." The second name flashed up, and Naruto thought he would faint on the spot.

**Hinata Hyuga**

"How the hell did this happen?" thought Naruto. "I have to face Hinata in the preliminaries? This isn't going to be pretty. I mean, I've seen her, and she's strong… but does she really have what it takes?" Naruto noticed that Hinata hadn't even come down yet. He looked up to see her still rooted to the spot where she had been before, a look of utter shock spreading through her face.

"How… how am I going to beat him?" Hinata thought. "There's no way… I've seen him fight; he goes at it with his everything…. Besides, I'm in love with him… how can I even think about beating him?" Suddenly, she heard Naruto's voice coming from the ground floor.

"You'd better be ready for our fight, Hinata!" Naruto yelled. "'Cause I am!"

Finally, Hinata found she could move; she jumped over the bar, nearly hitting her feet, and landed on the floor below.

"Please, Naruto," she said in a low voice, so only he could hear her, "I'm not as good as you are…"

"This is how it's got to be!" yelled Naruto as he charged at her. Hinata dove out of the way, just in time for Naruto's kick to miss grazing her face. Naruto abruptly changed direction and flew at Hinata again; this time, she couldn't react quick enough, and Naruto's kick sent her flying into the air; she landed on her back, knocking the wind out of her.

"Damn," remarked Sakura from the spectators' area, as Naruto began advancing toward Hinata, "I never thought he'd actually attack her, seeing she's in love with him…"

"That's the interesting part," replied Sasuke, "I don't even think he knows it."

Sakura's jaw dropped. "You mean to tell me that he can't even tell that she's in love with him? It's so damn obvious."

"What's obvious to us may be completely hidden to him," remarked Sasuke.

"Come on!" they heard from below. "Get up, Hinata!"

Hinata slowly got to her feet, only to be knocked into the air again by one of Naruto's well-placed kicks. This time, though, she twisted in mid-air, so that she landed on her feet.

"Now I'm starting to see the true Hinata!" Naruto yelled as he ran at her again. This time, she was ready; after ducking under his fist, she launched into a series of pumches that left Naruto blocking wildly.

"How the hell is she so fast?" Naruto thought as he blocked hit after hit; finally, though, one punch got through, and Naruto found himself up in the air, out of control. Hinata concentrated her chakra in her feet and leapt up to meet Naruto in the air. "How do you like me now?" she asked, as she swung up her leg and dropkicked Naruto down to the floor below. Everyone in the crowd heard the impact, as Naruto's body hit the ground.

Naruto lay still for a minute, and Hinata began to get really worried. "Oh my God, did I kill him? How am I even doing this in the first place?" she thought. "I've never been _this_ good… Is it because Naruto's here? Because I'm fighting him?" She slowly walked over to him and peered in the small crater that had formed.

Hinata backed up very quickly, and just in time, too- Naruto launched himself out of the hole and up at Hinata; he missed her, though.

"How the hell did you do that?" he asked as he landed behind her. "Never mind that… It's over starting now. SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

Naruto split himself into ten different copies of himself. "You think you were good against one of me? Now try facing ten of me!"

Up in the spectator level, Sasuke looked at Sakura with a look of disgust. "I really hate that technique, you know/"

"Why's that?" asked Kakashi.

"Because… one of Naruto is bad enough, much less fifty or a hundred of him." They all shared a quick laugh at this.

Hinata, however, was torn. "I don't even want to fight him… But it looks like I'll have to." She heard running footsteps as Naruto and his shadow clones started at her.

"Byakugan!" she yelled, activating her Byakugan eyes. Now, she could clearly see all of Naruto's shadow clones. When they got to about five feet away from her, she whirled around; concentrating her chakra into her hands and legs, she began her rapid strikes against the shadow clones; she hit one and it flew backwards instead of vanishing, but she seemed not to notice. Within a matter of a minute, all of Naruto's shadow clones were destroyed, leaving only the real thing.

Naruto was shocked, but he didn't let his awe get in his way. He leapt up and ran at Hinata. She ducked again, then launched her entire body up into Naruto's chest. Almost immediately, he dropped to the ground, and did not get up.

"Naruto Uzumaki is out of the match," came the announcer's voice. "The winner of the match is Hinata Hyuga."

The entire upper level exploded in cheers; absolutely no one had seen Hinata winning Naruto, as much as Sasuke was afraid to admit that. Hinata's face became its brightest shade of red yet; she walked over to Naruto and helped him up.

"No hard feelings?" she asked, barely above a whisper.

Naruto managed a pained smile. "None at all. You did great, Hinata."

The two stood there- Hinata basking in the glory of her victory, Naruto sore as hell. They both knew, though, that they had just fought in the greatest battle of their careers to date- and if they had the chance to go back and change anything about the match, neither of them would.

**(Ending A/N: Before I get the die-hard Naruto fans jumping down my back… I realize Naruto's preliminary came before Rock Lee and Gaara's. I simply made it this way to provide for a decent intro into the story.) **


End file.
